Barbara Walters left “The View” — and television, subsequently — in 2014, on a high note. She was joined by the likes of Hillary Clinton and Oprah Winfrey, along with other female anchors of her time. “I was teary. But I wasn’t going to cry because I was really very happy,” Walters told ABC News at the time. “There’s no such thing as perfect, but I can’t think of anything that was lacking.”
But while Walters had her ideal farewell episode, one of her former co-hosts, Lisa Ling, revealed that the legendary anchor was forced out of the show by the network executives. “I’ve never shared this with anyone,” she told The Cut, recalling a time when she asked Walters what she’d do after retiring. “‘Barbara, in a couple of months, are you going to be lounging in a hammock in Tahiti?'” she asked, to which Walters responded, “‘They’re making me quit.'”
It’s unclear why the network would want Walters to leave, but it was perhaps due to her declining health. Journalist Ramin Setoodeh wrote in his book, “Ladies Who Punch: The Explosive Inside Story of ‘The View,'” that during Walters’ last years on the show, there were instances where she exhibited poor health. “One day, just as the show ended, she collapsed into the arms of a stage manager,” he wrote. “She had to be taken to the greenroom, where they laid her down on a sofa. The staff called the paramedics.”
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